I'm happy to point to a new video interview with Michael Covarrubias, CEO of TMG Partners, a commercial real estate developer and longtime client of mine. The final version turned out to be longer than expected because Michael gave us too much good material - a problem I wish I had every time. We started early and the biggest challenge was keeping the light consistent as the day brightened. The video was commissioned by the Registry, a San Francisco based commercial real estate media site.

I recently completed a backlog of archiving my work and I realize I've been shooting digital images now for over 10 years. The transition from film to digital was a challenge, but keeping up with the technology can be overwhelming at times. Adobe Creative Cloud now includes 28 programs, which include 11 which I use regularly. That doesn't include a half dozen non-Adobe photo-related programs as well as all the various plug-ins as well as software for running the business side. When it was too busy I would remember how it used to be, dropping my film off at a lab while I would go to a nearby bar and have a beer with my peers while our work was being processed - the good old days. Although I remember needing to buy cardboard so I could package sheets of slides to send to magazines, and having a tabletop filled with chaotic stacks of slides or prints, and typing invoices on a typewriter, using a calculator for the addition and on and on.

But speaking of overwhelming technology, I came across this gem - the Posographe. Its a mechanical exposure calculator run with levers and sliders invented in the early 1920's by R. Kaufmann in Paris.

Kaufmann's Posographe - (L) The side for calculating exposures outdoors. For indoor photography just flip it to the other side to see a completely new set of the appropriate variables. (R) The diagram of interior levers.

It computes the exposure time for taking photographs indoors or out using six sliders. The large slider is set to the time of day. Other options include physical surroundings like “Snowy scene”, “Greenery with expanse of water”, or “Very narrow old street”; the sky conditions -- “Cloudy and somber”, “Blue with white clouds”, or “Purest blue”. For indoor photographs you could choose the color of the walls, the distance from subject to window, etc. Completely poetic, yet precise - exactly how photographs should be.